robert -having made several all wood tops i will say they are a lot of work-i have found that to put a wood top over a metal chassis plate makes the most sense--it helps with grounding issues and layout issues-you can make a sandwich which you can see in the enclosed link-or doing something similar to the bottlehead chassis where the plate is let into the wooden surround and then making a wood top to fit over that--if you look closely at the photos-you can see where i have a hole drilled with what appears to be a partial hole drilled with it --this second drilling allows for mechanical protrusions-meaning the tube socket and/or its fastening hardware-most of the work is in the layout -i do this first with a piece of plywood or scrap-all this can be done with a drill press and some forstner bits-a jig saw and a tablesaw--the second thing that is time consuming is the finish -one a coat on top and a coat on the bottom-important as the piece will warp for certain -sometimes it warps anyway-i use wipe on poly-use high gloss until you are happy with the finish then you can tone it down with satin or similar-the gloss will give you "build" and will harden a lot better-i also use threaded inserts to fasten the plate to the top -here is the link-feel free to PM me
https://picasaweb.google.com/100635555508988591604/January22201402?authkey=Gv1sRgCIi_yb-EzfakPw
